Fresh excavation work begins at Harappan site in Fatehabad village

Clue to past: Exercise will continue till April; experts say Haryana is home to archaeological treasure

Workers carrying out excavation at Kunal village in Fatehabad district.(HT Photo)

To find more about 5,000-year-old Harappan and pre-Harappan sites at Kunal village of Fatehabad district, the state archaeological department has started fresh excavation work there. The Haryana archaeology and museums department (HAMD) and the National Museums have jointly started the exercise. Besides, experts from the Indian Archaeological Society (IAS) have also been roped in for this.

The excavation will continue till April, the state department said in a press release. In a press release, the government in an excavation a year ago had claimed to have found square and rectangular mud-brick houses supposedly belonging to the pre-Harappan culture in India. Last year, the HAMD and Delhi-based IAS had signed an MoU for carrying out excavation work at the site.

Excavations at the village started in 1986.

The archaeological department had carried out excavation at Rakhigarhi village of Hisar district and recovered many Harappan artifacts.

HAMD deputy director Banani Bhattacharya said, “The state has more than 1,000 archaeologically important sites. Full-fledged excavation at the site will start on Wednesday. In earlier excavations, several regalia, including six beads of a necklace, an armlet, some bangle pieces and 12,445 beads of semi-precious stones, were recovered. Besides, artifacts were also recovered at the village during the last excavation.”

The department will soon create an online database of all archaeologically important sites in the state with the dates of excavation, officials said. “Kunal village is a pre-Harappan site. Also, nearly 30 km from it, there is another village Bhirrana where Hakra Ware culture, including spoke-wheels in large numbers, were found during an excavation,” Bhattacharya said.

The team will also search for graveyard(s) belonging to that era and it may help them start fresh research on habits and culture of that era.

The archaeological department had carried out excavation at Rakhigarhi village of district Hisar and recovered many Harappan artifacts. Also, it had carried out excavation at Rohtak’s Dakshkhera village where several graves were found.